I Most Definitely Do Not Need a Bodyguard, But I Might Need You
by Breathing in Poison
Summary: A fun little Glorybringer one-shot: Glory is sick and tired of Deathbringer following her around all the time, so she decides to prove that she doesn't need a bodyguard. Deathbringer, however, has other plans...


_I Most Definitely Do Not Need a Bodyguard..._

_...But I Might Need You _

"I most definitely do not need a bodyguard," snapped Glory. "I can handle myself."

Deathbringer flapped his wings lazily, easily keeping up with the angry queen. "I don't doubt that. What I do doubt is your sense of reason."

Glory swerved under a branch. "I have a very good sense of reason."

"Ha, ha. And using yourself as bait to find out the source of something that _obviously_ hates RainWings is a good idea."

"I was expecting something would rush out and attempt to kill me. Not kidnap me."

"Exactly why you need me around."

Glory glared at him, then suddenly swerved to the left and dove down, blending into the canopy.

Deathbringer folded his wings and plunged after her, arrowing toward the blur that meant very-pissed-off-NightWing/RainWing queen. He swerved under Glory and lightly clipped her with his wingtip, startling the Queen out of camouflage. "Got you."

Glory snarled at him. "Screw you."

They flew in silence for a few more minutes, their wingbeats stirring the tranquil rainforest air, startling iridescent birds out of hiding. Then Deathbringer glanced at Glory, noted her suspiciously impassive face, and said, "Don't do that again. This rainforest is already hard enough on my wings without having to go after you."

Glory growled, "You sound like an old dragon. And I am not your dragonet."

Deathbringer flew slightly ahead of her. "Just promise."

Glory stared ahead. "Only if you agree that my plan was reasonable."

Deathbringer paused, hovering. "I'm not quite sure if I should answer that honestly," he mused.

Glory's tail whipped around and smacked him in the face.

"Ow." Deathbringer beat his wings hard to catch up. "Your terms are very unreasonable."

Glory glanced around at him. Her scales were a calm forest green, reflecting the rainforest around her.

That should have been Deathbringer's first warning sign.

With a whoosh, Glory darted down into the canopy, total invisibility rolling across her scales. At the same time, her tail whipped around and cracked Deathbringer across the shoulder, knocking him out of his flight pattern.

Deathbringer yelped and struggled back into the air, star-spangled wings beating the air to shreds. Then he immediately scanned the forest below for any sign of Glory.

There were none.

"Great," he sighed. "Now I gotta go into assassin mode again."

.

.

.

Glory plunged through the trees and cannoned onto a branch, immediately adjusting her scale color so it appeared that no dragon had ever lain a claw on the limb. She closed her eyed and took several deep breaths, panting hard.

Pretty much directly after she calmed herself down, she heard a loud crashing noise, followed by several yelps and swear words. She half-closed her eyes and watched as a pair of black-and-purple wings, the colors of the night sky, appeared out of the foliage. Deathbringer followed soon after, crashing haphazardly onto a branch only slightly away from Glory's. She dared herself not to move, then watched amusedly as Deathbringer yanked vines from his wings and shook splinters out of his snout.

Deathbringer settled down on the bough and curled his tail around it, peering around the trees with an expression that appeared unconcerned, but Glory really knew was a piercing, miss-nothing assassin's sweep. She closed her emerald-flame eyes as his dark purple ones raked over her hiding spot, and only opened them again when the prickling sensation left her scales.

Deathbringer yawned and stretched out on the branch, lazily flicking the tip of his tail like some sort of jungle cat. He looked half-asleep, but Glory could tell he was alert and searching by the way his ears pricked at every sound and how he occasionally took deep, whuffling breaths through the nose. She bit back a laugh when his eyes unfocused and half-closed. He sneezed and lay his head down on the branch.

Glory was just barely resisting the urge to jump Deathbringer when she saw it.

A tiny, light blue tree frog with enormous feet was aimlessly climbing the twig next to her, going her way.

Glory held her breath and watched it closely, thinking with all her might, _No, don't come here, turn around, go the other way, go anywhere but here..._

You see, Glory wasn't very fond of tree frogs. Especially when one had landed on her face the other day and had absolutely refused to get off.

Deathbringer shifted and half-opened his wings, as if he were about to stretch.

_No, Deathbringer, don't do that, you'll scare the frog onto me..._

Too bad RainWings don't have mind-control abilities. Deathbringer flared open his massive wings with an audible _fwoosh_, startling the frog into Glory's wing with an alarmed _worgle-Worg!_

Glory shuddered and hastily shifted aside, changing her scales to look like part of the tree so that Deathbringer didn't see the frog floating in midair.

The tree frog, apparently unconcerned about sitting on a dragon that could kill it with a twitch of a talon, began clambering over Glory's back, rambling up to her head.

Glory held her breath and sat as still as possible, doing her best not to shiver as the frog's sticky little feet tickled her scales.

Deathbringer turned his lazy gaze on the frog and idly watched it climb, making no indication that he knew the "branch" the little tree frog was walking on was actually a dragoness whose skin crawled as the frog made its progress.

Glory sweat-dropped.

A minute passed. The frog was almost to Glory's head, and she was on the verge of losing her self-control...

A blast of burning heat washed over Glory's scales as a plume of fire roared past, singeing the branch in front of her. Glory flinched in surprise.

The little blue tree frog leapt off Glory's back with an alarmed croak.

Glory barely had enough time to note the frog's absence when something very large and very, very heavy settled onto her back, shocking her out of camouflage.

Glory yelped and whipped her head around, fangs bared...

...And came snout-to-snout with Deathbringer's grinning face.

"I knew there was something off about that tree." Deathbringer put on his smug face. "Hello, Glory."

"Don't give me that smug face." Snapped Glory, whorls of red flickering through her ruff. "And get off of me. Now."

Deathbringer held out his wings in mock defeat. "How many times do I have to tell you? This isn't my smug face, this is my heroic face." He settled himself more comfortably on her back. "And it's pretty comfy up here."

Glory rolled her eyes and shifted her wings slightly. She wasn't actually against touching Deathbringer-she had to touch him to beat him up- but the fact that he was sitting on her crossed the line.

She took a deep breath and shimmered out of sight.

Deathbringer yelped and flapped his wings, tipping off the branch in surprise. "Glory? Glory! You know I hate it when you do that!"

He expected no response- but Glory's voice sounded out directly behind him.

"I know." Deathbringer turned-and there Glory was, hovering, bubbles of amused yellow drifting through her scales. "That's what makes it fun."

Deathbringer grinned at her and flicked his tail. "Heyyy... not nice."

Glory laughed and turned around, flying up into the treetops. This time, she didn't fade from sight, and Deathbringer didn't crash through the forest looking for her.

Instead he followed her, and they flew together in silence until Glory slipped between two branches, and Deathbringer lost sight of her.

"Glory?" He called out, hovering neatly in place."

"Up here."

Deathbringer swam in the air for a second more then slipped between the trees...

...And burst into warm gold sunlight.

He recognized the place instantly. It was a little nook at the very top of the tree, where the leaves formed were small and soft and new, and where Glory liked to come whenever she wished for solitude, up high in the warm gold sunbeams.

It was Deathbringer's favorite place, too, far away from the RainWing/NightWing village, because of the peace that rustled through the leaves and the warm, contented feeling he got while lying there in the soft leaf nest.

It was also his favorite because it was Glory's favorite, too, and here alone he could sit and watch as peace relaxed her beautiful features and lulled her into a contented sleep, and he could just watch without fearing any type of interruption.

It was a sheltered place, this treetop, a place where two dragons with haunting pasts could rest and feel safe, safer than they ever felt anywhere else in their entire life.

"Deathbringer?"

Glory's melodic voice broke Deathbringer from his thoughts. She was curled up in the spot a little higher than the other one, a little closer to the sun. Contented pinks and pale golds and light blues swirled through her scales. She beckoned to the dip in the trees next to her with a flick of her tail. "Come sit with me."

Deathbringer landed softly and folded his wings, then lay down with them pressing against Glory's.

She didn't flinch away.

They sat in silence for a while, until Deathbringer was on the verge of nodding off, when Glory spoke up again.

"Deathbringer?"

"Hrm?"

"I may not need a bodyguard..."

Deathbringer smiled, eyes half-open. "That goes without saying."

"...But I might just need you."

Deathbringer smiled again, then closed his eyes.

A/N: Whew! Been meaning to get that out of my system. That was fun to write. I don't usually write mushy romance like that...but...

*trails of and looks thoughtful*

...Anyways. Hope you enjoyed the show! : D


End file.
